Attack of the 50ft Rabbit
by Hereward the White
Summary: When Vilthuril is captured for animal testing and cancer research she goes on her biggest adventure yet!
1. Vilthuril's Arrest

This is my first fan-fiction story; since no-one else seems to be doing size-altering stories, I finally decided 'If you want something done, do it yourself!' I hope you'll like it.

Note: I only own the human characters in this story; the rabbit characters belong to Mr. Richard Adams.

Caution: Some sections have a mixture of Lapine & English!

Note: The height mentioned in the title is approximate, not definite.

**Attack of the 50ft Rabbit**

1: Vilthuril's Arrest

It was a beautiful summer's day; the sun was high in the sky bringing a golden glow to the fields of wheat and on Watership Down the rabbits were at silflay. As they fed on the lush, green grass, Vilthuril went to speak to Hazel-rah.

"Hazel-rah?" She spoke to him, who suddenly looked up to her.

"Vahl, Vilthuril?" he queried.

"Can I go down to the bottom of the hill?" She asked him; "Only I'd like to see what the grass is like down there." Hazel-rah looked at her with uncertainty; he knew the hrair dangers that were hard to spot when you were down there; but being the benevolent rah he was, he made a positive reply.

"Well, I suppose it'll be alright," He told her, "But always be alert, there are many dangers out there; as Fiver would say 'Always expect the unexpected!' I know it's hard to understand, but once he explains it more clearly you can understand him." Vilthuril was so excited that she was off like a shot (knowing rabbits even a desperate pfeffa couldn't match that simile so well; the rabbit can top a speed of about 43mph!) and she was halfway down the hill before she slowed with caution.

Meanwhile, not far from the base of the down, a group of cancer research scientists were setting up a trap to catch an animal to experiment on. One of them, a 27-year old female wasn't comfortable about this, but she had to do it; continually, she reassured herself that one day an animal would get it's revenge on her unfeeling colleagues.

"Stan, do you realise that animals have feelings as well as we do?" She told a 35-year old male, he looked up at her as though she was a 'silly' little girl.

"Elaine, what a load of nonsense you talk! All animals do is follow their instincts, except for those you can easily train that have some more sophistication than most of these stupid animals!" Elaine felt like she could kill him at that moment, but she was very witty & had a very high level of self-control, so she just said to him.

"We don't know that _exactly_, Stan! Why don't you think how it would be if we used a _human_ in the labs against it's will?"

"Of course I think about human testing!" Stan replied, "That's why we use animals, you ninny!"

'One of these days,' thought Elaine, 'just one of these days, you'll pay for those remarks and everything relating to them!' By now the trap was set and the scientists withdrew to a van parked on the road, nearby & out of sight. One of them went to a peep hole, watching for an animal to wander into the trap.

When Vilthuril got down to the base of the down she thought she saw some movement of white; she turned towards it, but she saw nothing.

'Foolish doves,' she thought, 'they'll jump at anything they will!' As she placidly grazed on the grass she then caught the whiff of a carrot.

'There's no other flayrah,' she thought, 'I'd might as well try it.' So she sniffed her way towards the carrot and, upon seeing it, dived straight for it and started feeding; then she heard a clanking noise, which made her jump, and the next thing she knew, she was in a cage!

"FRITH & INLÉ!" She cried. "And not long ago Hazel-rah was telling me to keep alert, I'm so stupid! Hey, who am I talking to?" Rabbits, you see, aren't as mad as they look, unless s/he's a pro-Woundwort, in which case they are as mad as they look!

The scientists waited patiently, waiting, or in Elaine's case, grieving, for an animal to come into they're trap; what seemed like hours to them, but was actually minutes, the scientist at the peep hole shouted out.

"TOAD IN THE HOLE!" This happened to be the code word for 'An animal has been caught!' Some of the scientists came out to get the captured animal; as they neared the trap turned cage they could see the familiar shape of a rabbit.

"One of our regulars!" Chimed one of the scientists, in the sense that they usually experiment on rabbits. One of the other scientists went up to get a good look at the rabbit; it cringed upon seeing the scientists.

"Ah," commented one of the scientists, "'Tis a female, colleagues! Perfect for testing on." They all concurred; one of them lifted the cage and took it back to the van, with his colleagues following. At arrival the scientist who had lifted the cage brought it into the back where Elaine was waiting in humiliation.

"We know you like animals," mentioned the scientist to her, "You'd better look after this female rabbit while we drive back." Elaine had no choice anyway, but still she would like to see the animals before they got worse from testing. So the rabbit was put down opposite Elaine, the other scientists got in the front and began the drive back, Elaine watching the rabbit with a deep sadness in her.

Vilthuril watched as some men approached her, she became very distressed; what would they do to her, how could she escape, would she ever return home? Then eth of the men lifted the cage she was in off the ground, this got Vilthuril very disturbed, for there was no _real_ ground to walk on.

She now found herself being put inside a hrududu, then she realised that if they put so many things inside hrududil then that must mean that hrududil aren't alive, this shocked her. When she was put down she found herself being under close guard by a man, it was then that she felt the hrududu begin to move.


	2. Missing Presumed Tortured

2: Missing (Presumed Tortured)

As Frith sank slowly in the west, Hazel-rah was ready to retire to his burrow for the night, once he asked someone to bring Vilthuril back up from the bottom of the down. As he started off he saw Bigwig racing up towards him.

"Frithaes Bigwig," Hazel-rah spoke to the approaching rabbit, "Anything wrong?"

"No, Hazel-rah," Bigwig groaned sarcastically, "I just thought I'd have a vao run across the grass before I went underground and you just happened to be close to my direction of running. Of COURSE there's something wrong! Vilthuril's been taken away by some men!"

'HRAKA,' thought Hazel-rah, 'now I'll have to see to the rescue effort!' So he turned to Bigwig and asked him to tell everyone that there'd be a meeting in the Honeycomb, ethile thing tomorrow.

"You really make use of your position, don't you?" Bigwig commented in a rather cheerful tone before he set off; the cheerfulness in his tone of voice made Hazel-rah assume that he was glad something was going to be done about it.

'Knowing Bigwig,' thought Hazel-rah, 'he's probably hoping that I'll decide on something risky to save Vilthuril; he gets so excited about danger!'

In the van Elaine looked sympathetically at the doe in the cage, filled with sadness & anger of what would become of her; but she still had some hope for her. Then she suddenly turned to the doe for the sound that came from her, she listened carefully as the doe repeated it.

"Embleer Ithéil." groaned the doe; this caused Elaine to jump with astonishment. She could make out the variations in sound as words! Unrecognisable words, yes; but they were definitely WORDS.

"Don't worry," She told the doe, "You might be able to take revenge on what these people do; I only participating because I have too!" But then the doe shot her a look, one she recognised as being the look for 'What are you talking about?' She then realised that their languages were very different & there were some English words that rabbits would have seldom, or never, have come across, so she just gave her a look of 'I don't want you to suffer too much, if at all!' Which the rabbit clearly received by relaxing as sunset came along.

Vilthuril looked up at the man who was always keeping watch over her. She felt cheated & very angry she was ready to make an expression to try & level with these men. Eventually she could hold it in nahl more.

"You EMBLEER Men!" She cried out, then the watching man made a more direct look at her, a look of astonishment; Vilthuril felt there was something getting to it. "Embleer men." She grumbled, and then the watcher jumped back with evidence that it was surprised of hearing her. Then she heard the watcher making words in it's own language, Vilthuril could only just make out it was an actual language; but she didn't understand it so she shot the watcher a look of puzzlement, which did seem to sink in. In response the watcher shot _her_ a look of sympathy & forgiveness, Vilthuril then realised that, for some reason, this man was taking it's actions whether it liked it or not, but with an element of vengeance for it's own species in it's eyes, Vilthuril decided to relax before the worst stuff came along.

As the journey continued Elaine kept a watch on the doe wondering how she'll be when, if ever, she'll be released back into the wild; continually looking into her eyes, the two were able to understand that they both felt in a similar way to one-another. Eventually the van stopped and the back-doors opened revealing the inner city region of Basingstoke behind one of Elaine's (so-called) colleagues.

"We're here then?" Elaine asked him sarcastically, the man gave her an annoying look before replying.

"Yes," he groaned, "We ARE here!" Elaine rolled her eyes; he always had a thing about people asking the obvious when, usually, that was the everyday way of speaking. So she gave the doe a look of sympathy & farewell before the man came in and took the doe away & into the building; Elaine & the others following.

As Vilthuril felt the bumpy-bump of the hrududu moving along the road, she wondered what these men were planning on doing to her when they got to wherever they were going, but Vilthuril knew eth thing; after continually exchanging glances with the watcher man she knew that not all men were bad, just (by her standards) most of them. She felt a need to get the way she felt under certain conditions into the consciousness of hrair men, but how? She thought.

Just then the hrududu stopped & a light came in through an area, someone was opening the hrududu; as she looked into where the light was coming from she found herself in the middle of a very large place of human creation. Eth thing that shocked her was that it was fu-inlé, yet there was more light silf than what was normal for the night; she looked back to the watcher just in time to receive a sympathetic farewell glance, and the next thing she knew, she was being carried out into the bright region that made hrududil lights seem dim by comparison by another man, and off towards a building larger than any she'd ever came upon before. Eth problem she realised was that she didn't know how far away she was from Watership Down, there wasn't enough of a view to help her judge how far she'd come, let alone what direction she travelled in.

By morning on Watership Down, the rabbits were rapidly gathering in the Honeycomb, ready to hear what Hazel-rah had to say; tension was high, and it was very clear that it had something to do with Vilthuril's absence. At about des hours after sunrise Hazel-rah took 'centre-stage' and began the meeting.

"Comrades," He called out, silencing the minor conversations between the rabbits, "We are facing a crisis; as you might have heard Vilthuril has been captured by some men. She has a good chance of being alive, but we must act fast before something unspeakable happens to her! I'd like any of you to bring any rescue suggestions to me, the more suggestions the better. I've decided to set off for her rescue des days from now, thank you!" As he said this the rest stood down and dispersed to continue with their daily lives whilst thinking about how to rescue Vilthuril from the men. As Bigwig was about to leave, Hazel-rah called to him. "There's something I need to know since you were the eth who saw her capture." At this Bigwig turned to him.

"Hazel-rah." He replied, "They went off towards where frith rises & in the direction of, as Kehaar tells us, 'Der Pig Vawter'! Both directions at the same time!" At this Hazel-rah stood down himself & withdrew to his burrow, thinking about the rescue mission himself.

Author's Note: The large region that Vilthuril has been taken to does exist; the science lab, I'll just take that on trust. It's Basingstoke, the closest city to Watership Down.


	3. Imprisonment

3: Imprisonment

As Vilthuril was carried through the building she was both frightened & astonished at what she saw; there were hrair objects making an unusual noise and flashing with blue lights, other things she saw were things being pushed around with ease, riddled with items she thought were best left unknown. So many things in such short time, it was giving her a headache, so she decided to have a snooze since it seemed impossible to escape _at the moment_!

Eventually she woke up & found herself still being carried, but in a large chamber filled with cages containing a wide variety of animals; some she recognised, like the mice & rats, others were a complete mystery to her. It wasn't long before she was brought to an empty cage, which she soon worked out was where she'd spend most of her time whilst she was here; the man put eth end of the carrier cage to the larger cage and removed the wire from that vicinity. By tipping the carrier cage Vilthuril was forced into the larger cage, whereupon it was closed.

'Well,' she thought, 'at least it has more room than that eth.' She looked up to see the man making marks on something flimsy & white, followed by him putting it on her cage & leaving; Vilthuril quickly noticed that he'd put it with the marked side facing away from her. 'At least I can see some of the others,' she thought; as she looked around she realised that some of the familiar creatures had strange things that were a part of them! Eth mouse had a human ear on it's back, a tarli had a manipulative tail coming out of his flank, everywhere she looked there was eth normal-looking animal and eth bizarre animal. 'Embleer Frith,' she thought, 'what will happen to me?'

Next Morning, back on Watership Down, Fiver came towards Hazel-rah with an idea. Hazel was very happy to find his younger brother coming up with something as he very often gets things right!

"Hazel," spoke Fiver as Hazel-rah turned towards him, "If we continue following the route Bigwig has told us we can find Vilthuril!" Hazel-rah was slightly surprised at Fiver's comment; he had to ask him about it.

"Fiver," He replied gently, "How can we find her when there's a risk of us getting caught as well? We've got to spot her over a large area; it'd be like trying to look for corn in a field ol wheat!" Fiver looked into Hazel-rah's eyes with a haunting air that always came when he'd had eth of his omens.

"When we get there," Fiver explained, "She won't be hard to miss!" This reassured Hazel greatly, but he couldn't work out how Vilthuril would be easy to spot. At that Fiver left him stumped at this cryptic explanation, but he was sure it'd come to him, either directly (Actually seeing Vilthuril or Fiver giving him a better explanation) or indirectly (He himself working it out as logically as possible).

Meanwhile, back at the science lab, Vilthuril was aroused by a clanging noise in the room; once she'd fully opened her eyes she could see a man going round the cages putting into them green stuff & brown stuff, observing the eager gobbling of the other animals she immediately worked out that this was flay. When he got to her cage & put the flay in she recognised the stuff straight away, but it wasn't even vao enough to match grass.

"Soggy Lettuce & Potato PEELINGS?" She groaned; but she realised this was what she was going to get any way, so she started on the lettuce & peelings, the rabbit equivalent of gruel.

Meanwhile, upstairs in a committee room, a group of leading scientists were discussing tests on the captured animals, which test subject would be given what test, that sort of thing. Amongst the scientists Elaine, the one who didn't like animal testing at all, was there, she was in charge of the minutes; as they continued through the meeting their final test subject on the agenda was Vilthuril! Her test number, which was put upon her cage the night before, was Subject #229.

"I believe," spoke the chairman, "That subject #229 would be ideal for testing the irritation level of our new shampoo formula, you know, to see if we can promise 'no more tears'." One of the other scientists was totally shocked; this was the last available subject for the day, and he wanted it to be tested on cosmetics, just like all the previous ones. He had to protest.

"Sir," He cried out, "Shampoo is not a life/death item, can't we use this subject to test this new drug to counter-balance all forms of cancer? Whereby the body will be able to reject the useless cells naturally because of the evenness of their distribution, that'll stop any serious cancer!" The chairman turned to him disapprovingly before choosing to put it in a more democratic situation. Elaine felt deeply offended by both suggestions.

"Right," spoke the chairman softly, "All those in favour of cancer drug!" 70 of the committee put their hands up. "All those opposed?" Elaine & 3 others put their hands up. "Carried!" The chairman commented, "Subject #229 shall be subject to cancer testing. Right, any other business?" There was no response, so the chairman called the meeting to be adjourned; as they left Elaine pulled the one who made the cancer-test suggestion to the side.

"You fool!" She cried, "Have you any idea how much that rabbit could suffer?" The man turned to her, puzzled, before replying.

"No," He said, "And I don't particularly care!" Elaine pushed him away with extreme disgust; if she wasn't so well controlled he'd be on his way to hospital by now.

'Just you wait,' she thought, 'one of these days this animal testing shall get you lot into a lot of trouble!' She was happy that this was the last time she'd be responsible for the minutes, tomorrow she'd be transferred to the keeping of the animals; so she could take care of them whilst they'd have no suffering relating to the tests. But the disadvantage was seeing those that have been tested on suffer, she wouldn't really like that.


	4. Oh, the Pain!

4: Oh, the Pain!

Over the next si days Vilthuril lay in the cage with fear, poor food & surrounded by normal creatures with strange features; she couldn't work out what was going on, until a rat with si tails told her about it.

"You see," the rat told her, "They capture wild animals alive, they give food to keep them alive, the food is poor because it's easier for them, then after a few days each animal is given one test; that means they take an animal out, do weird things to it & return it back here where they keep watch on it to see what happens. Some animals get free, others are killed when they're usefulness has ended." This shocked Vilthuril terribly, it was only a matter of time before _she_ became eth of the bizarre creatures; this also gave her si fears, she'd either be killed once the men were finished with her or she'd live a life of humiliation with features that could make even those close to her, fear her!

Meanwhile, back on Watership Down, Hazel-rah had finally decided on what to do to rescue Vilthuril, he was holding a restricted meeting in the Honeycomb; it consisted of all of those chosen for the expedition. There was Fiver, needed for advice when his omens flare up again; Bigwig, for guidance towards the location where Vilthuril was; Blackberry, for helping them avoid & get out of problems; and Hazel-rah himself, for motivation. Whilst they were away the warren would be governed entirely by Hyzenthlay-rah, due to Hazel's idea of instating a female rah as well as remaining as male rah _himself_ (see 'Tales from Watership Down'). As Hazel-rah moved to the middle of the group they all went quiet in anticipation of what he was about to say.

"Comrades," He spoke, "I've decided that the best way to save Vilthuril would be that we all go in the direction she went, we should be able to find Vilthuril by scent; remember to try and avoid too much contact with men! Who here would be able to come on this mission?" They all cheered with agreement, this was clear enough so they left the Honeycomb, made their farewells, Hazel-rah instated Hyzenthlay-rah as only rah of the warren whilst he was away, and they set off to the South-East.

About 30 minutes later, back in the lab, a man came into the room where the animals were kept and he headed straight for Subject #229; wearing rubber gloves, he opened the cage & lifted her from where she was, for some reason he could not fathom she didn't attempt to escape, and he left the room with her in his arms.

By the time he'd got to the testing room she suddenly began to start trying to escape, if it wasn't for his fast reflexes she would've got away by now. With a firm hold on her he pushed the testing room door open and entered with her, still firmly held in his arms.

Vilthuril was starting to lose appetite from worrying when she noticed a man enter the room, covered in white clothes; he moved over to her cage & opened her cage. This immediately brought Vilthuril to realise that the time for her test had come, the terror of what might happen to her was so intense, now; that she'd become tharn with the fear. This enabled the man to pick her up easily & carry her silf of the room.

'This is it,' she thought, 'I'm going to become so unusual I wouldn't even be called a rabbit!' After a short while she decided that she might as well try to get away and, so, she started to struggle, but the man made his grip more firm, this proved to Vilthuril that she'd be unable to escape the test! She stared around her as she was brought into the test room with fear and awe.

As the man put Subject #229 on the table, she tried to jump off but was stopped by another man behind her. At this the man that brought her in nodded to the lab assistant and left.

Now a scientist entered the room carrying a syringe, containing the cancer counter-balancing drug, and stood by the table whilst Subject #229 was clamped down on the table with steel hoops; at this the assistant turned on the sun-bed that was being held over the table to infect Subject #229 with skin cancer. When it was certain she had cancer, which she did, the sun-bed was turned off and the scientist moved forward, put the syringe down on a nearby trolley & looked at his watch, waiting for the moment to inject the drug.

When Vilthuril found herself on the table, she attempted to get free, but another man had pinned her from behind; she watched as the man who brought her in left, after which another man carrying a frightening & pointy object entered. Now she found herself being held down at her paws, by iron shapes that prevented escape; after which she felt a terrible burning sensation on her back as a blue light fell upon her body, the terrible discomfort didn't end when the blue light was turned off, it reached deep into her skin; the absence of the blue light, however, made the pain start to fade away. This didn't stop her fear, though, she was always distressed in this room because she was afraid of what she'd become after the test.

After a short while the man with the pointy thing, picked it up again and moved towards her, rubbed her thigh with something soft & damp and stuck the pointy thing into her, the pain made Vilthuril attempt to struggle but the iron shapes stopped her even from doing this. But the pain soon went away after an even shorter while, after which she was unclamped & brought back to the cage in the animal room, where she lay trembling. 'This is it,' she thought, 'I've been through the happening and it won't be long before I become too unusual to be a true rabbit.'


	5. Too Effective!

5: Too Effective!

As the Watership rabbits progressed across the countryside, Fiver had another eth of his omens; everyone on the mission gathered to here it.

"Vilthuril shall become the mightiest rabbit as we know of at the moment; hrair men shall flee from her just by the sight of her!" this cryptic message was much clearer than the last; Hazel-rah realised that such physicality would be very clear in sight, but he couldn't work out exactly the sort of physical power she'd have, but it was most likely going to be that her muscles would stretch further than normal. At least that's what _he_ thought.

After several hours in the lab Vilthuril felt the injection take effect, she feared what she would become; she anticipated a desthile ear, kes more tails or some other freaky addition. But then she realised what it was doing to her; most of her body was remaining the same, but eth thing about her was changing, her size! She was growing larger; this was something she couldn't handle.

'How big shall I become?' She thought, 'how large shall I be?' She continued thinking this as she grew & grew & GREW!

In the conference room, a group of scientists, including Elaine, were waiting for some order to be given; forever bickering about morals & advancements. Elaine was continually arguing with a colleague over the moral implications of testing on animals; he always counter-argued of the moral implications if they tested on humans, until the head of the department entered the room.

"Colleagues," he called out, "To what the lead cancer-research scientist tells me, the counter-balancing drug should be working by now! I want two scientists, a monitoring employee & one supervisor to check if it's worked well for Subject #229!" As he went round he chose Elaine for the monitoring employee and moved to the other three, one female & two male. And he sent them down to the holding room.

By now Vilthuril was getting very uncomfortable, because she'd now grown so large that the cage was too small for her.

'Frithrah!' She thought, 'I don't think that even General Woundwort got to be this large!' Yet, despite the cramped conditions, she was still growing, forever getting larger. By the time she felt so tight that she thought she'd gain certain injury if she grew any larger, the cage suddenly burst apart without actually giving her real injury, she was that large.

'What would men think,' she thought, 'if they saw me at this size?' But she kept on growing, eventually she fell off the ledge because she couldn't fit on it, but she didn't so much fall as step; she could now look straight into the other cages while she was on the floor, on her haunches.

The group of scientists progressed down the hallway towards the holding room, most of them were in high hopes of the results, but Elaine was in despair, fearing that Subject #229 was all deformed and in physical & mental hurt. As they came upon the holding room Elaine braced herself in fear if what she might see, the others rubbed their hands together in expectation of results, one of the men opened the door to the room.

The scientists were in shock at what they saw, there before them was Subject #229, the drug had clearly worked but not the way they wanted, Subject #229 was the size of grizzly bear and the remnants of her cage were scattered about the room. Elaine breathed with relief that Subject #229 wasn't hurt and she also breathed with awe at what she saw; but then the other woman screamed with fright, causing Subject #229 to turn towards the door; at seeing the group there was an expression of sly delight upon her face; and with a sweep of her forepaw caught one man, Elaine & the other woman, whom she held underneath her forepaws whilst the other man slammed the door shut and ran off down the corridor.

Vilthuril was astonished at how large she had become, bigger than a man by her reckoning; upon hearing a scream he turned to the source of the sound & beheld kes men at the doorway. She decided to compare herself with them and, so, with a sweep of her forepaw, brought des of them into the room and pinned them under her forepaws, whilst the other man slammed in the door & ran off.

Vilthuril looked down at her captives, it was quite clear now that she was larger than a man, and she was still growing. She also found that she was starting to become accustomed to it; now she looked at her captives again, and recognised eth of them as the female that watched over her in the hrududu, she felt a strange bond with her, as though this female man could be her pet once she reached the right height. To reassure the des of them she glanced at them with an expression that suggested she wanted to take care of them, now she was growing larger than them.

The Watership rabbits were still moving across the countryside, determined to bring Vilthuril back to Watership Down, but the sun was beginning to set in the west; so Hazel-rah decided to make a few scrapes for the night. Bigwig found a suitable bank to make them in, and work for night shelters began; yet Hazel-rah & Fiver were feeling restless, Fiver was wondering if Vilthuril would be understood enough to avoid too much pain, and Hazel-rah was nervous as to how Vilthuril would look like (he knew she'd look different, he just didn't know how).

As Hazel-rah finally came to rest the moon was beginning to rise over the horizon, he was still thinking about Vilthuril though, Blackberry had taught him a cunning trick to work out exactly what he was trying to work out; it involved continually thinking about the problem right up to the point at which he fell asleep, the subconscious would then work on the problem in his sleep so when he'd wake up the problem would be solved. He began to doze off as he thought about Vilthuril & Fiver's cryptic messages.

The man who had avoided Subject #229's forepaw was still racing through the building to the committee room, thinking about what he saw and if the committee would actually believe him. It was quite a problem, this sort of thing only ever happened in science-fiction, he was afraid the committee would put him in an asylum if they didn't believe him, then he'd only be proved when Subject #229 outgrew the building itself!

As he rounded a corner he began to run out of breath, all this running was making him exhausted, but he wanted to tell the committee what happened ASAP!

'Still,' he thought, 'If they do put me in an asylum they'll find out the truth sooner or later, and they won't be able to say I didn't warn them!' He rested to get his strength back and also to think about Subject #229's growth rate, it was a frightening situation.


	6. Vast Vilthuril!

6: Vast Vilthuril!

The scientist continued onwards at a steadier pace than before, to avoid tripping up; when he came to the door of the committee room he knocked upon it.

"Come in!" A voice called out from the other side of the door, the scientist went in to face the committee, who were all sitting round a table. He looked to the head of the table, where the chairman sat; he was the one who called him in.

"Well?" The chairman spoke; he was a rather impatient sort of man and didn't like to be kept waiting. The scientist cleared his throat and began to speak.

"It's about Subject #229!" He said, the other members of the committee sat up and listened with anticipation. "The drug seems to have worked," the scientist continued, the members started to smile, "But she's the size of a grizzly bear!" The scientist cried out. "Or was," He continued, "Since it was about 25 minutes ago that I saw her, and I'm pretty sure she's still growing!" All members of the committee, including the chairman, gasped with astonishment; but then they relaxed mundanely, the chairman began to speak.

"You may be going mad," He commented, the scientist felt humiliated, "But we can't take any chances, I shall send for seven shotguns; you, me & five others shall take one each and go down to the room. If what we find is what you said then we'll open fire on this overgrown pest; if not the others & I shall get you into an asylum for treatment." The scientist smiled at this news, and left to prepare himself; meanwhile the committee secretary phoned an ammunitions store for the shotguns, a few committee members started muttering to each-other.

Vilthuril discovered she couldn't control her growth when she tried to make herself stop, so she had to try and get used to it; her captives were still pinned under her forepaws but they had stopped struggling and began to try and work out why the drug was causing this.

Vilthuril herself was wondering exactly what her full size would be, she was certain that no animal continues growing for the rest of it's life, so she was sure her growth would stop at eth point in time. Then she felt a distant connection, the night was falling, she was getting sleepy, but she could hear Fiver's voice in her head.

"Vilthuril," Fiver telepathically called, "I understand the happening, and the bits that make you are rising in number, so you grow whilst your bits remain the same size." Vilthuril felt fairly relieved at this, so she kept her captives pinned down under her forepaws and went to sleep.

By the next morning Hazel-rah suddenly started up almost instantly after he woke up; the answer was right there before him, he could see Vilthuril & the fleeing men, but the thing about this that was different to the image than when he was falling asleep (where Vilthuril was normal but the men were still running from her) was that Vilthuril was hrair times larger than them! He burst from his scrape and bumped into Fiver, who was doing the same thing in the opposite direction. They hushed each-other, then they winked at each-other, then Fiver spoke to Hazel-rah.

"You know don't you." Hazel-rah couldn't help but feel that his brother was going to say that, he nodded; but the idea was still swimming in his head, how could any rabbit grow that large? They looked at each-other, nodded again and went to get the others up & catch a morning silflay. After which Hazel-rah debriefed the others.

"Comrades," He called out, "I've been thinking about Fiver's cryptic message during the night, and when I woke up this morning the answer was there! According to Fiver's confirmation when I met him this morning & my own attempt at logic, Vilthuril is, or will be, much larger than a man! Vahl friends, I know it's hard to believe, but look at the situation, remember Fiver's message. Now tell me, is there any other explanation?" The others shook their heads; Bigwig made hard work to try and disprove this theory but failed and disappointingly shook his head too. "Very well, we shall continue on the rescue mission." Hazel-rah finished and they set off.

Vilthuril woke up with a start, for she was woken by a loud braking noise and a slight headache; when she looked around she realised she had broken through the roof and silf. She then worried about her captives, who were pinned under her forepaws when she went to sleep, she looked down worryingly only to be relieved when she saw them alive & well right by her forepaws, although she had removed her forepaws from them when she woke up they weren't trying to get away from her; on the contrary they were stroking her ankle with a loving affection, as though they suddenly all decided to accept being her pets.

She smiled (she actually managed to smile) and lowered her head to them; at which she very carefully took si of them up in her mouth and threw them up in the air, moved forward slightly and allowed them to land on her back. The other looked up with awe as she did this, apparently becoming more interested in her than anything else. Suddenly Vilthuril heard feeble, high-pitched screams to her left; turning towards them she saw hrair men running away from her, emitting the screams as they went.

'Poor things,' She thought, 'at the slightest sight of a rabbit, an animal that everything knows is a plant-eater, which is much larger than them they immediately get frightened of the rabbit and begin to run from it.' She wanted to get revenge on the men that had caused suffering to herself and hrair other animals, but she pitied those who were just passers-by, she didn't want to cause panic beyond those that made animals suffer. She sighed and decided to rest.

Elaine woke up steadily, she remembered the previous evening when a man, a woman & herself became captives of Subject #229, they had gone to sleep underneath Subject #229's forepaws; but now Subject had relieved them, so the two others & herself commenced to stroke her ankle with affection, it was quite clear that her colleagues here now had the same affection for Subject #229 has she had.

Then she looked up at Subject #229 to see her smiling down at them, Elaine couldn't help but smile back, somehow she was enjoying the whole experience of being grasshopper-sized in comparison to this rabbit; she so wanted to know what Subject #229's true name was, a feeling told her that while Subject #229 was a wild rabbit she still had a proper name. Then she suddenly found the man & herself being picked up by Subject #229, who was picking them up in her mouth, then she found the man & herself being flung in the air, only to come to a soft landing of Subject #229's back. By now Subject #229 had stopped growing, and was looking around herself; eventually the rabbit decided to have a lie down, whilst the other woman gazed up in awe at everything that had happened.

The chairman started up suddenly at the sound of loud braking & distant screaming; the shotguns hadn't arrived yet and every minute counted. He looked to the rest of the committee as they looked about them, for they had woken up suddenly as he did at the sounds.

He looked towards his secretary and yelled out "Where are those shotguns?" The secretary looked towards him suddenly and replied.

"I'll just see sir." She then picked up the telephone and dialled a number. "Hello?" She spoke into the phone "Could you give us an idea as to when the shotguns will get here?" The person at the other end made a diplomatic response.

"We can only tell your manager!" The person replied, so the secretary handed the receiver to the chairman and relayed the situation to him. At which he took the phone sharply and called into the mouthpiece.

"Hello? Will you please tell me when those shotguns will arrive?" There was a brief pause before the person on the other end replied.

"They're on their way now; I think they'll get to you in about half an hour."

"Well, about #"(# time!" The chairman replied with a grunt, the person on the other end hesitated with a bit of shock.

"Well there's no need to be rude, sir." He finally replied, the chairman was still in a hot temper.

"Well thank you and GOODBYE!" He cried down the line and slammed it back onto the hook. Things were getting desperate & stress often caused a very hot temper; everyone else in the committee knew that they only had to be perfectly silent now until he had cooled down.

As the Watership rabbits continued across the countryside toward Basingstoke Hazel-rah was still trying to come to grips with the idea that Vilthuril could become bigger than a man. He was also wondering the exact size Vilthuril had reached/would be reaching; things were getting desperate, he didn't know if Vilthuril would be able to notice them when they'd meet her.

"Look!" Bigwig cried out as they reached a road, the others all looked towards the road.

"So," Hazel-rah replied, "It's a road, we've seen them before!" Bigwig looked at Hazel-rah in an unusual way and shook his head.

"Vahl, Hazel-rah!" Bigwig replied. "But look there!" He indicated with his forepaw, there was a signpost where he was pointing to.

"Oh, vahl," Hazel-rah acknowledged, "What is it?" Everyone turned to Blackberry who studied the signpost carefully.

"It seems," Blackberry told them, "That this thing is what men use to know where to go!" All the other rabbits began to look around to see if anything could give them a lead to Vilthuril.

"Hoi!" Fiver cried out, the other rabbits rushed towards where he was. "This thing here smells of Vilthuril!" He told them, the others confirmed this and notified where it was.

"This proves she was taken in that direction!" Hazel-rah told the others and pointed down the road, the direction the signpost said was the way to Basingstoke; they all set off.


	7. Learning the Language

7: Learning the Language

As Elaine sat on the rabbit's back she felt she had to do two things: First she had to learn the rabbit's language; second she had to learn the rabbit's name, it was a very deep feeling. She was sitting on the back of a giant female rabbit and she was thinking about getting to know it; she carefully moved forward towards Subject #229's head to speak to her.

"Pardon me, madam;" She said to the rabbit, "But I was wondering if you could let me know your name." The others that had been captured by this rabbit were shocked by her gentle approach to a rabbit that could crush her beneath one of it's paws.

When Vilthuril heard eth of the female humans speaking to her she couldn't understand what she was saying but could tell by the tone of her voice that she was being gentle. Carefully turning her head she could see that it was the same human who had given her a sympathetic glance in the hrududu, she thought hard about this approach before she decided to reply as gently as possible for fear of hurting this human's ears.

"I don't know what you said," She whispered to the human, "But my name is Vilthuril. By what name are you known?" Vilthuril looked into the human's minute little eyes and could tell that it was in shock & awe of her. What Vilthuril couldn't comprehend was whether she was astonished by her speech or by her size.

Elaine looked up into the giant doe's magnificent eyes, she still couldn't comprehend the language but she was sure that the long word was likely to be the enormous rabbit's name. She could easily catch the word 'Vilthuril' but the rest was beyond her.

"Vilthuril?" She squeaked to the rabbit, raising her hand up towards her head to indicate that she was enquiring as whether that was her name or not.

The colossal lagomorph looked down to her, she replied "VAHL!" And nodded her humongous head to indicate she was acknowledging her question. Elaine was becoming very fond of this mammoth lepus, and she looked up into her enormous eyes and made a sweet smile before telling her, her name.

"Me, Elaine!" Elaine told Vilthuril in a soft voice, pointing at herself to indicate she was talking about herself. Vilthuril managed to perform the facial expression known as a smile and lifted her huge forepaw and gently stroked Elaine; Elaine nearly fainted from being touched by this tremendous paw, but shock gave way to admiration & love of Vilthuril when she identified that he was being stroked.

Both Vilthuril & Elaine felt a great affection for one another now, despite of the fact that Elaine was only the size of an insect compared to Vilthuril. It was a most astonishing situation for the both of them; Vilthuril was still trying to get over the fact that she was now even larger than a human, and Elaine was still coming to grips with the fact that she had been picked up by a giant rabbit and flung onto her back (Vilthuril's back that is, not Elaine's back).

Meanwhile the committee was going down to the delivery yard to get the shotguns, which had only just arrived. The Chairman of the committee was very impatient.

"It's about time you arrived!" He growled at the deliveryman, who was rather offended.

"Well," the deliveryman replied, "If you are going to be like that I can always take these shotguns back until you send an apology." His voice was gentle, but that only made the sting of the sentence worse.

"Very well," replied the chairman, despite his annoyance, "I'm sorry!" The deliveryman nodded in response and handed them the shotguns, then the chairman handed him a cheque for the shotguns, followed by a tenner for the deliveryman's tip. Once the deliveryman had left one of the men pulled out a knife and stuck it into the box and pulled it across the box to open it; inside there were seven shotguns and five cartridges for each gun.

As the Watership rabbits continued on their rescue mission, Fiver started to twitch, and they all knew what that meant. Fiver was having another eth of his omens; Hazel-rah came to his side.

"What is it Fiver?" Hazel-rah asked him with a tone in his voice that he was expecting it to be about Vilthuril, Fiver began to speak.

"Hrair men shall attack her with tunnels of fire, yet she'll have no true injury and will bring them severe pain!" He cried out, Hazel-rah stood there for a while to figure it out, and then he turned to the others.

"He said," Hazel-rah informed them, "That hrair men will use guns to try and harm Vilthuril, but she will not receive a wound from the guns." He left out the bit of what Fiver said Vilthuril would do to them afterwards because he couldn't quite get to grips with that part. So they just continued on their journey.

The committee walked down the corridors towards the holding room, the chairman, the reporting scientist & five others had a shotgun each. They were determined to destroy Subject #229 because, like many humans, they hated the idea that any animal could be better than a human; size ratios were one significance, they saw any animal that was over twice it's normal size was a threat to humanity's pride.

Their pace quickened, they weren't running or jogging, just walking quickly; eventually they found the door that led into the animal holding room, carefully one of them opened the door.

"Naylte?" Elaine spoke pointing at Vilthuril; despite the language barriers she was a quick learner as she observed Vilthuril's indications as she tried to learn the language of the lagomorphs.

"VAHL!" Vilthuril replied, nodding her head, which made Elaine understand that 'vahl' meant 'yes'. The other two just stared at the both of them, they couldn't quite work out what was going on other than that rabbits have their own language & that Elaine was trying to learn it from this enormous doe. One thing was that despite Vilthuril being a doe, her voice seemed to boom due to her increase in size; at least she tried.

At that moment they all heard the door being opened, they all turned and saw seven figures standing in the doorway, each one holding a shotgun in it's hands. The man & Elaine had a hunch about why they were here, and they didn't like it; at that moment the scientist in the new group spoke with the voice of a hero (even though he was anything but) to the humans around the rabbit.

"Don't worry" He cried out, "We will rescue you from that overgrown vermin!" At this Elaine became so angry that she could hold it in no longer, and she shouted from Vilthuril's back.

"Leave her alone, you b$#$!" She cried out. "Have you no respect for marvels of nature?" This was followed by another, probably rhetorical, question. "Why don't you leave Vilthuril alone?" Five of the other humans stood there agape, both at Vilthuril & at what Elaine had just shouted, but the chairman & the scientist were stubborn enough to reply.

"Oh," Spoke the scientist, with a mocking tone in his voice, "So it's 'Vilthuril' now, is it?" Then he made a mocking laugh that not only angered Elaine, but her companions as well.

"No creature should ever supersede humanity!" The chairman cried out. "Move back from that rabbit's head so we have no risk of harming you!" Elaine scolded at him.

"I WILL stay HERE!" She shouted back at him. "If you're gonna kill her you will kill me too!" The chairman told the others to load whilst he loaded his own shotgun.

Vilthuril could not comprehend what the humans were saying, but the tone in their voices gave her some idea as to what they were saying. She then noticed the shotguns in the other group of humans and knew what they were for. Eth of them shouted a word she could not comprehend and they all started shooting at her; it was painful but she found she wasn't being injured.

Eventually, after des shots per gun had been shot at her, she could stand it no more and lifting up her forepaw she swatted the humans in the doorway sending them flying into the walls. All of them were injured, kes of them more seriously injured than the others.

Elaine marvelled at Vilthuril's might compared to the big-heads that tried to shoot her, with that lot out of the way she presented Vilthuril with a sweet, respecting smile and a look that asked for further teaching of the language of the rabbits.

The other two humans were amazed at the fact that rabbits had a complex language with distinct words; the fact that this particular rabbit was a giant astonished them enough, but that she had evidence of rabbits being a civilised race took the biscuit!


	8. At Large in Basingstoke!

8: At Large in Basingstoke!

The Watership rabbits were getting close to Basingstoke, but they wouldn't be able to reach it before the day was out. Hazel-rah realised that night was falling, they couldn't go on through the night; he called the others together.

"I'm afraid," Hazel-rah told them, "That we will have to stop for the night; I hope that Vilthuril would be safe for each time we had to stop." As soon as he finished his speech they all set to work to create some scrapes; as the moon began to peep over the edge of the horizon Hazel-rah took Fiver to eth side. "Will we be able to save Vilthuril in time?" Hazel-rah asked him.

"At the present time," Fiver replied, "She can take care of herself, but she must return to the warren in des days from tomorrow!" Hazel-rah realised that there was a time limit to this adventure once he heard this, but he thought that des days would be, as humans would say, 'a piece of cake'.

Now that Elaine knew the basics of the Lapine language, Vilthuril picked up the other female human and put her on her back (Vilthuril's back that is) with the other si. She took a last look at the room that was now in ruins caused by her sudden growth and carefully stepped out onto the road silf; she felt she had to return to the warren, but for now she could investigate the human world.

She looked about herself, the world looked so different now; a rather large hrududu (a lorry) drove by her, passing very close to her forepaw, as Vilthuril watched this hrududu go by she felt a taste of power and what was more was that soon after the hrududu passed her it swerved creating an annoying screech sound and very nearly crashed into a smaller, more common hrududu (a car). Vilthuril then looked into the front of the hrududu and saw a man inside who was staring up at her with a look of shock on his face; observing that this man was in the hrududu she came to the conclusion that hrududil were not alive, but objects of man's design. She slowly moved forward trying not to cause too much harm to any humans or animals around her, went down on her haunches and looked at the man at closer proximity; the tip of her nose was very nearly touching the hrududu, but she could see that his body was moving faintly and rapidly, clearly showing that he was somewhat frightened of her. She then got up off her haunches and carefully reached down with her forepaw, scooping up the hrududu and holding it close to her face, trying to avoid dropping it. As she looked at the man inside again she noticed that he was quivering even more now; as she inhaled she picked up a whiff of what was inside the hrududu other than the man, there were carrots in the hrududu. Vilthuril was feeling rather hungry so she carefully turned the hrududu round so that the back was facing her, she then reached out her other forepaw and ripped the back off and carelessly threw it down within a few feet of another hrududu; from her back Elaine watched everything that was happening with awe & astonishment; now Vilthuril silently opened her mouth and tipped the hrududu backwards causing the entire contents of the back part of the hrududu to fall into her mouth, 140 crates of carrots emptied from the hrududu into her mouth. Once she found no more falling into her giant mouth, Vilthuril withdrew and levelled off the hrududu, whilst she closed her mouth and swallowed the crates whole, it took des big gulps and eth minor gulp to swallow the hrair.

She then realised why the man was so frightened of her, she was large enough to swallow HIM in eth gulp, but she was a rabbit, and rabbits don't eat other animals, let alone humans. But as she turned it back so she could see the man he was ranting and shouting at her, but she did not know why, anyway his shouts weren't that intimidating, they sounded feeble & helpless to her. Elaine knew what he was saying though, he was angry that Vilthuril had just swallowed what he was going to deliver, there were many people like that who were more interested in getting a job done quickly & easily so to get some money, than they were in the survival of other animals.

Elaine found the whole experience quite astonishing, especially the sight of Vilthuril swallowing the entire cargo of a lorry, since the driver of that lorry wouldn't stop shouting at Vilthuril she decided to introduce him to realism.

"Listen man," She shouted at him, causing the driver to stop shouting at Vilthuril and to Elaine, peering over Vilthuril's shoulder blade, "You won't get anywhere complaining to her; she's so large now that you and I are insignificant by comparison!" She made gestures to indicate that she was talking about Vilthuril when she said 'she'. This soon got him incredibly nervous again, once again anticipating that Vilthuril would either eat him or crush him like an insect.

Vilthuril wondered what to do with this man in the hrududu, she was now rather puzzled about how to treat a man who shouted something or rather at her when she was hrair times bigger than he was. The question on her mind was 'Shall I kill him for his selfishness, or shall I let him off with vao intentions?' The whole thing was confusing her, but she then decided to imagine the answer Hazel-rah would give her; this helped a great deal. She gently placed the hrududu back on the road and headed off into the city, slowly but surely to avoid stepping on any human or animal that she felt didn't deserve it.

As she advanced into Basingstoke she could feel the humans on her back clinging on to avoid falling a distance from 27ft to 53ft. She wondered what the other rabbits (including Hazel-rah & Fiver) would say if they saw her at this size; or even if they would say anything at all, they could be sent tharn at the mere sight of her.

On Vilthuril's back her passengers clung on to prevent a dangerous fall; they were usually just holding on, but when she made a certain move (like standing up) they would greatly tighten their grips to make sure they didn't slip down her back and slam into the tarmac/concrete on the floor below. Elaine kept close to Vilthuril's neck, when a dangerous situation faced her she would hold on tight in the procedure of hugging Vilthuril by the neck; the man was in the middle of her back, his procedure was to grab onto the fur in the opposite direction of the ground; and the other woman found the best thing to do was to use Vilthuril's tail when danger was near.

Such a time soon came when Vilthuril sat up with a car beneath her 'harrumph'; they all went through their procedures to prevent a fall. As Elaine looked up she could see that Vilthuril was peering through a flat window. She wondered what Vilthuril would do if she saw anyone inside.

As Vilthuril looked into a high level room in eth of the buildings, she could see a female human walking into that room from her (Vilthuril's) right; only a few seconds past before the woman saw Vilthuril's enormous eye peering through the window, she screamed in terror and reared back against the far wall with no coolness for her to figure out that she could just have moved quickly to eth of the doors and get silf. Her screaming shocked Vilthuril, she felt upset at understanding that the woman was screaming because she thought she was going to kill her, if this human just made a yelp and jumped back then that would mean surprise & astonishment at seeing her.

Vilthuril was so upset at this understanding that she managed to produce a facial expression of this, also she turned her head so both her eyes were looking into the room; the woman inside stopped screaming but she was trembling vigorously and staring at Vilthuril with both fear & awe. Elaine had also heard the screaming and sighed at the fact that people seemed to have the common misconception that virtually anything that was much bigger than a human was when it's normally about the same size as a human or smaller, would either have a desire to crush them like insects or a desire to eat them.

As Elaine looked up to Vilthuril's sad face she decided to make a negotiation with her. She carefully climbed up so her feet were level with her shoulders (if you call them shoulders) and commenced to ask Vilthuril a favour.

"Veth A meth - asith mi, Vilthuril?" She asked her, Vilthuril rolled her eyes around to look down to Elaine.

"VAHL, MI VETH." She replied in a sooth, gentle tone of voice.

"Os i veth - ma ven thli, A - bral A veth - val mo na - lan i vao." Elaine explained to her as best as she could. Vilthuril lifted her forepaw up to where Elaine was and replied.

"VAHL, A LAYTH KOI MI VEN THLI!" She managed to find a way to pick Elaine off her back with her forepaw, by curling her toes round to give her support and indicating to Elaine that she had better climb into her forepaw. Elaine did so taking care so she wouldn't fall. Once she had managed to settle in Vilthuril's forepaw she clung on as Vilthuril carefully lifted her to the window. As Elaine looked inside at the petrified woman she was greeted by a look of great shock from her, it was probably from finding another of her kind sitting in this colossal rabbit's forepaw unharmed and cool as a cucumber.

Then, without Elaine even asking, the woman inside moved forward and opened the window, and pulled Elaine in off Vilthuril's gigantic forepaw, quickly closing the window behind her. Vilthuril however decided to make sure she didn't haul Elaine away against her will; she kept a watch on Elaine & the other woman to rescue Elaine in case she was hauled away.

"Please," Elaine told the woman, "Don't be frightened; she won't harm you!" The woman stared at Elaine in disbelief; she found it hard to trust someone who kept so cool when there was a colossal rabbit keeping a watch on the both of them.

"How can you be so sure?" The woman asked Elaine rhetorically. "A rabbit that size means nothing but trouble!" Elaine sighed and shook her head whilst looking down at her feet.

"Vilthuril's only curious about human society," She told the woman, "She doesn't mean any harm, and she's barely caused any." The woman was now more preoccupied with what Elaine was saying to her than with Vilthuril peering through the window.

"VILTHURIL?" She cried. "Has this rabbit been your pet once?" She asked Elaine, half expecting the answer to be 'yes' since she thought that a rabbit only had a genuine name when it was domesticated.

"No!" Elaine told her. "She's of wild origins; rabbits are more civilised than people think, they even have their own language. I learnt some words in the language of the rabbits and that is how I was able to distinguish between her name and common nouns." The woman was now in more disbelief of the situation than ever; the whole idea that rabbits could civilised enough to have a complex language & names was too alien to her.

"Well I don't know the rabbit language," She replied, "So I wouldn't be able give her any info about mankind if I wanted to." Elaine sighed and partly nodded & partly shook her head; she was ambivalent to what she said.

"I'll ask her, her interest in you!" Elaine told her and then turned to the window, walked forwards under Vilthuril's gaze, opened the window and asked Vilthuril. "Bleth mul mi tring asith mo? Kan o tring na lan!" Vilthuril took a mighty sigh and told Elaine.

"A TRING NA LAN HLOTH SETH ITHÉIL KOI HLIENESIL VEN SI HRISTH FLOWIL A SETH, VARU O, KOI HLIENESIL VEN HRAIR HRISTH FLOWIL." Elaine thought about the Lapine words and managed to reproduce them into a suitable English sentence in less than two minutes; then she turned back to the other woman.

"She said," Elaine told her, "She wants to know why some people live in normal houses & some, like you, live in tower blocks." The other woman looked at her with doubt over her reply.

"Well," the woman told Elaine, "Tower blocks are cheaper than houses; it depends on who has more money." Elaine stood for a while so she could work out what Vilthuril would think of as money; eventually she had to settle for 'flayrah' and translated this for Vilthuril. One thing was clear to both Elaine & Vilthuril; in learning Lapine, Elaine was a fast learner.

After a few more clear ups Elaine said goodbye to the woman, climbed out of the window into Vilthuril's forepaw, returned to her perch behind Vilthuril's neck and Vilthuril continued looking for, what to her were, human curiosities.

Eventually Vilthuril came upon a police blockade; they were desperate to restore human superiority to the land. The chief on the ground gave the order to fire; he was of US origins and had this thing about aggressive responses, and the police began shooting their rifles at Vilthuril. This got her very upset and found no other course of action than to sweep them from the road.

The sun rose over the hills, the owls went home and the Watership rabbits came out of their scrapes to silflay. Fiver turned to where the sun was rising and went starey-eyed; Hazel-rah noticed this and ran to him.

"What is it Fiver?" Hazel-rah asked his younger brother, Fiver lifted his forepaw as though he was pointing to the sun.

"The sky is red with Frith's rise;" Fiver told Hazel-rah, "Blood has been spilt last night!" Hazel-rah was stumped at this; he wasn't sure if Fiver simply meant that blood was shed during the night or if he was suddenly making a big deal about the colour of the sky in the morning.

"Fiver," Hazel-rah asked him, "Do you mean someone has died in the night, the colour of the sky in the morning isn't coupled in with fate you know." Fiver looked into Hazel-rah's eyes and answered.

"Blood was spilled last night! The red sky was comparison, an unusual coincidence that the sky is coloured red when the night before had the red of blood flowing from living things." This most definitely cleared things up, but it also made Hazel-rah nervous.

"Whose blood?" Hazel-rah asked him. "Whose blood was spilt?" Fiver thought deeply, before returning a cryptic answer.

"It was the blood of man," Fiver told him, "His blood has flown from a fight with a rabbit!" Hazel-rah immediately jumped at the news, he quickly rushed back to the others who had seen Hazel-rah talking to Fiver.

"Vilthuril's killed them!" Hazel-rah cried as he ran into the group. "Vilthuril has killed some men!" They all jumped at the news, the concept that a rabbit could kill hrair men single-pawed was difficult to grasp.

"How could she?" Bigwig asked him. "It's nearly impossible for a rabbit to kill eth man, let alone hrair." Hazel-rah looked at him in a way that told Bigwig that he (Bigwig) had forgot something.

"In case you've forgotten what I told you about her from Fiver the day before last," Hazel-rah announced to Bigwig, meaning that Bigwig has forgotten, "Vilthuril is much larger than she was, which means that she could deal with men more easily now." Bigwig shook his head; he wanted to explain reality to Hazel-rah.

"Even if she was as big as a cow," Bigwig replied, "Even si men could easily deal with her; surely she wouldn't be…" He trailed off as Hazel-rah & Blackberry looked at him with a 'you know what we're thinking' looked at him, and then the truth hit him like a mountain.

"You mean," Bigwig cried, "Vilthuril's even bigger than that?" Hazel-rah & Blackberry nodded their heads, it took a few minutes for Bigwig to get his act together again, and then they set for Basingstoke, which was already within their sight, but they couldn't see Vilthuril.

Vilthuril aroused herself as the sunlight shone on her over the buildings, she looked down at her new friends, they were still asleep draped over her forepaws, after the feud with the armed men last night she found a place she could go to sleep, the City Park. Eth thing was sure of her before she settled down, no elil would attack her while she was asleep (or if they were they wouldn't stand a chance), so she didn't bother digging a scrape, she just placed her friends on her forepaws, where she would keep them warm with her body, and settled down to sleep.

Now it was time to wake she was amazed at the fact that humans were capable of sleeping fu-frith. 'They wouldn't be able to rest during ni-frith,' Vilthuril thought to herself, "If they kept sleeping fu-frith." She then noticed that Elaine was stirring, Vilthuril felt terribly sentimental at the sight of a female human that was smaller than a mouse in comparison to her, lying there asleep and beginning to wake & stir; Elaine was so cute from Vilthuril's point of view.

Elaine was all out of her mind when she woke, once she had got her act together the first thing she saw was Vilthuril's enormous eyes looking down at her, this made Elaine go all soppy as well.

"Vao fu-frith, Vilthuril!" She greeted, Vilthuril managed to smile at her and reply.

"VAO FU-FRITH, ELÉN!" She boomed; Elaine smiled up to Vilthuril, it was clear that the name 'Elaine' was difficult to pronounce in Lapine.

After about half an hour the others woke, found their bearings and then Vilthuril picked them up in her teeth and gently placed them on her back, before setting off to look through Basingstoke.


	9. Ultimate Vengeance & Reunion

9: Ultimate Vengeance & Reunion

A small group of scientists (all involving Vilthuril's imprisonment) felt that a rabbit this size would be too incorrect; like the majority of humans they felt that their species was better than the others, and they'd do anything to keep that philosophy.

"Subject #229," announced one of them "Is too big and powerful for a rabbit! It'll cause havoc across the world and the land will be matted by the corpses of squashed people!" What he meant was 'We can't allow a rabbit to have a size, strength, stamina & speed superiority to us; we'll get rid of it and humans shall keep their place in charge of the world, bwarrahahahahar!' However the others felt the same way and had a good hard think about how to deal with a giant rabbit when rifles & shotguns were no use.

There were four scientists; one was Stan (the Stan who helped set the trap), one was the bloke who persuaded the committee to use Vilthuril for cancer research (named Barney), one was the man who wanted to test shampoo on her (named Eric), and a bitchy American woman who just came along for the ride named Vicky.

The Watership rabbits continued on their journey to Basingstoke, all aware that only si days were left to meet Vilthuril and get her back to the down; as they moved on Fiver began to flare up again.

"Fiver!" Cried Hazel-rah, rushed over to him. "What is it? What do you see?" Fiver replied in a cold tone of voice.

"The showdown is coming close, that with the guns does too much boast!" This was a hard eth to grasp; Hazel-rah just thought it would be best if they quickened their pace, he relayed both Fiver's message and his idea to Bigwig & Blackberry.

"The sooner we get this over with the better." Bigwig commented, supporting Hazel-rah's idea.

"I hope we're up to the speed." Blackberry informed them, showing his ambivalence to Hazel-rah's plan. At this they continued on their way at greater speed once Fiver had come out of his trance.

As Vilthuril moved through the city of Basingstoke she began to wonder if her new size was permanent or temporary; she wanted it to be temporary because she felt the best way to live with the Watership rabbits was at regular rabbit size, she didn't want to live separately or to continue looking down at her comrades, but if it was temporary she wanted to be back at Watership Down before she started shrinking back to normal size or she'd be in hot water.

As she moved through Basingstoke, Vilthuril began to wonder the names of the other si humans who were riding on her back; she came to a tall building where her eye was level with the roof (it was the top of a Bhs store). She carefully plucked her passengers from her back and carefully placed them on top of the roof, and then she lowered her head so she could talk at equal level to them and began to speak.

Elaine just managed to get her footing on the roof when she noticed Vilthuril's lips beginning to part, this she immediately realised indicated that Vilthuril was going to speak so she stood up attentively to hear what the giant doe had to say.

"BLETH LAY U METHIL OL U SI HROW MI?" Thundered Vilthuril to Elaine, who stood there for a bit and then she turned to the others.

"She wishes to know your names." Elaine told them, they then carefully moved forward to meet Vilthuril's gaze. First up was the other woman.

"My name is Laura." She said and gingerly (due to nervousness) extended her hand up to Vilthuril.

"Mo meth lay Laura!" Elaine translated for Vilthuril, who gingerly (for fear of harming her) lifted her forepaw and gently touched Laura's (seemingly) tiny hand.

"A LAY ÉVEER NA LAN MI, LAR-RA." Vilthuril replied, then they both carefully withdrew their limbs, Laura turned back and the man came up to Vilthuril, extending his hand more enthusiastically than Laura had done.

"My name is Daniel." He told her, Elaine once again translated at which Vilthuril touched his hand with her mighty forepaw.

"A LAY ÉVEER NA LAN MI, DAN-YAL." Vilthuril told him, they withdrew their limbs and Vilthuril, very carefully, scooped them all up in her forepaw and placed them back on her back, and continued on her journey.

The amateur group, the Society for the Human Overpowering of Titans (SHOT), which comprised of Stan, Barney, Eric & Vicky; were preparing a howitzer with explosive shells to bring Vilthuril down. They had chosen a narrow pedestrianised street because they believed that a narrow street would help give them an accurate shot at her enormous chest.

"An animal's place," screeched Vicky (as that was how she always spoke), "Is out and about just going about a simple life with humans making a weekly kill to keep them in their place. No animal should have an exciting life, let alone be more powerful than a human." They had finished with the howitzer when they heard low-pitched thuds getting louder and louder.

"She's coming." Sneered Eric, he was ready to wallop her good (or, to be more accurate, bad); they all shared a common philosophy that humanity was the best, and nothing was going to stop it. The mayor of Basingstoke had made a statement that if they succeeded then that philosophy would be proved, if they failed the city would establish nature as being **THE **most powerful force in the universe and Basingstoke would establish an Environmental Preservation Institution of Cities (EPIC).

As Vilthuril made her way through Basingstoke, on her way back to Watership Down; Elaine, Laura & Daniel had reached an agreement whilst riding on her back. They would establish a new organization that would be called the Society for the Utopian Preservation of Enlightened Rabbits (SUPER). Then as Vilthuril rounded a corner they heard a shout, Elaine recognised it instantly, it was Stan.

"FIRE!" He shouted followed by a bang as a shell was launched at Vilthuril from a howitzer. As the shell struck her right flank she cried in pain, but it only gave a slight bruising. Elaine peered over the struck shoulder & Daniel over the other shoulder, partly to see the attackers & partly to prevent them causing any further injury. "Fire at will!" Stan cried, and they lobbed a second shell at Vilthuril (in spite of the fact that her name wasn't Will) and it struck Vilthuril's hip, this had the same effect.

She couldn't stand it any more, Vilthuril had to kill the attackers, it would make a point.

"LAN THUM A LAY ZAYN NA ZYHL MES!" She thundered, hoping to intimidate the kes humans (it's closest English translation would be 'Prepare to die'), they loaded a desthile shell. Vilthuril lifted her giant forepaw and raised it over them.

The des humans that were operating the howitzer aimed at her heart, released the safety catch and were about to fire. They didn't manage to fire as Vilthuril was too quick for them; her forepaw had descended on them, all that was left was the wreckage of the howitzer and the now dead, splattered bodies of Barney, Eric & Vicky. Stan immediately ran off once this had happened.

Vilthuril licked any bits of human that had got stuck to the underside of her forepaw and continued.

The Watership rabbits were now entering the outskirts of Basingstoke, they hoped to find Vilthuril as soon as possible. Fiver had told them that she'd be hard to miss, so they kept an eye out.

Then they heard deep thuds that were getting louder & louder, Bigwig braced himself at the idea that this would be followed by the ground shaking, Blackberry sat down to figure out the cause of the thuds. Only Fiver & Hazel-rah seemed to understand what was causing them.

"Keep your eyes peeled," Hazel-rah told Bigwig & Blackberry, "She'll be here soon." Then Blackberry remembered Fiver's omen, he was anticipating her to be as big as a hrududu (lorry). Bigwig smiled, anticipating her to be as big as a bungalow (although he wouldn't call it that) with blood-stained forepaws.

And then they saw her, all except Fiver gasped, even Hazel-rah thought she wouldn't be as big as she was. She was bigger than the farmhouse at Nuthanger Farm (which was how big Hazel-rah anticipated); she then spotted the kes of them. She ethile gasped, then she got as close to a natural smile as she could, and kimthile she moved forward slightly and went on her haunches.

"NICE TO SEE YOU AGAIN HAZEL-RAH," She thundered, "SORRY ABOUT ALL THIS, IT CAN BE QUITE TRICKY SOMETIMES." Hazel-rah rubbed his ears for a while because he was taken unawares of the volume of her voice. He then looked straight up into her eyes and replied in a shout (anticipating his normal volume to be too feeble for her to comprehend).

"We Came As Soon As We Could, VILthuril!" He called up to her; she decided to let them meet her human followers.

"I MANAGED TO CATCH SOME HUMANS," She told them, "THEY'VE MADE A VAO DECISION TO RECOGNISE THE POTENTIAL IN RABBITS! THEY'RE RIDING ON MY BACK AND ETH OF THEM CAN SPEAK SOME LAPINE." At this Hazel-rah, Blackberry & Bigwig jumped back in shock; that she had some humans riding on her back that respected her (rather than feared her) was a really shocking concept. Fiver of course wasn't too surprised; he was used to surreal events.

"May we meet them?" He asked his colossal companion, at which she smiled again.

"CERTAINLY." She told them, stretching out her forepaw for her passengers to use as a slide down to ground level.

Elaine was now aware that Vilthuril had met some of her lagomorphic comrades, she was amazed at the extreme variants in the Lapine tongue, and then Vilthuril turned her head to her.

"AI TRING NA SAI MES DES." Vilthuril told them, Elaine nodded and translated for the other two.

"She says there are some rabbits who'd like to meet us." At this they carefully made their way across Vilthuril's back and slid down her leg, which finished in a soft landing on her forepaw. Then they climbed off her forepaw and came face to face with Vilthuril's normal-sized rabbit friends. Vilthuril made introduction.

"ELÉN, KOTHEN-RAH; KOTHEN-RAH, ELÉN. ELÉN, HRAIROO; HRAIROO, ELÉN. ELÉN, THLAYLI; THLAYLI, ELÉN. ELÉN, BREKENNION; BREKENNION ELÉN." She thundered as she introduced Elaine to the Watership rabbits. "LAR-RA, KOTHEN-RAH; KOTHEN-RAH, LAR-RA. LAR-RA, HRAIROO; HRAIROO, LAR-RA. LAR-RA, THLAYLI; THLAYLI, LAR-RA. LAR-RA, BREKENNION; BREKENNION, LAR-RA." And she continued in that manner with Daniel (Dan-yel as she pronounced). Hazel-rah then hopped up to Elaine and gave her his forepaw.

"Vao na sai mi, Elén." He told her, she placed his forepaw in his hand and shook it.

"A lay – vao ven ma – ven lan mi." She told him, she then gazed in wonder at his forepaw, with amazement that she was once held in one. She then let go of his forepaw and met his eyes, which were staring at her in astonishment.

"Mi meth Naylte!" He told her, she smiled and replied.

"Roo!" She then continued. "Vilthuril laynt val ma – na lan u meth – tafo." Hazel-rah made a positive facial expression and replied.

"Vao-nyt!"

After a while Vilthuril piped up again (voice that is, not growth).

"A BRAL ON KOI NA ZAYN IL U HLIEN YEN." At hearing this, the Watership all replied.

"Vahl, on drao." Then Elaine looked up to Vilthuril with a pathetic look in her eye and asked her.

"Veth on dayn?" Vilthuril smiled and replied.

"VAHL, AN MES DRAO ZAYN OL BLAIR A LAY BLETH A LAYNT SISI!" Elaine agreed, and then she, Laura & Daniel were scooped up in her forepaw and placed on her back again. "MUL MES TRING NA LAY THAF MA?" She asked the Watership rabbits, Hazel-rah replied.

"On mul nahl tring na bray mi hlaf, zoth vahl." The other three agreed to this, interested in the experience. So Vilthuril scooped them up, also, and placed them on her back with Elaine & company.


	10. Reunited

10: Reunited

As they travelled back to Watership Down on Vilthuril's back, the Watership rabbits watched across the land amazed at the high view they had, and at how quickly the world went by. But otherwise their journey was uneventful, and much faster than when they went to find Vilthuril.

"This has been quite an adventure," Spoke Hazel-rah to the others, "Eth of our friends becomes really huge, she kills hrair humans with barely a scratch on herself, we get introduced to a human who speaks Lapine and now we're riding on her back." The others nodded in agreement, the Fiver piped up.

"Elén is a human of uncommon things; she hates seeing animals in pain, yet she seems to cope well with seeing humans in pain." They all shrugged their haunches.

Elaine listened in on their conversation, she could recognise some of the words, but a few were ones she hadn't learnt. She wondered what their home would look like for a while.

They stopped halfway for the night, whenever the other Watership rabbits were worried by elil Vilthuril would take care of the problem. Elaine greatly admired Vilthuril's size, capability to teach humans the Lapine tongue and her level of reason that she shared with the other Watership rabbits.

They arrived back at the Down by midday; Vilthuril & her passengers all looked down on the rabbits at silflay; who were unaware of Vilthuril for a while.

As Hyzenthlay-rah nibbled at the grass on the down she became aware of a sudden dimming in the light, quite unnatural for ni-frith, it wasn't even cloudy. She slowly turned her head to look up and spied Vilthuril; she gasped with fear & awe, then she gasped again with recognising the rabbit & awe.

"Vilthuril?" She inquired, timidly. "Is that you?" Vilthuril smiled and stretched out her forepaw towards Hyzenthlay-rah, in the manner that someone would extend their hand in greeting.

"IT IS, HYZENTHLAY-RAH!" Vilthuril replied. "SOMETHING HAS MADE ME GROW TO THIS SIZE, I'M NOT SURE IF IT'S GOING TO UNDO ITSELF OR NOT." At hearing Vilthuril, Hazel-rah & Fiver moved forward to Vilthuril's neck. Hazel-rah peered over her shoulder and did whatever the rabbit equivalent is of a wave to Hyzenthlay-rah. Fiver, on the other hand (or paw), leaned forward to Vilthuril's ear and told her.

"Your size shall end by sunset," Fiver told her, "This is your last day at such a size." At this Vilthuril carefully plucked her passengers from her back and set them down on top of the down.

"HAZEL!" Cried Hyzenthlay-rah, rushing towards him. "You're alright!" She didn't slow down soon enough to prevent her from colliding with him; he nearly fell over from the collision.

"Nice to see you again, Hyzenthlay." He replied, he then indicated the des humans and told her about them.

"Wow!" Cried Hyzenthlay-rah. "She," Indicating Elaine, "Can speak Lapine!" Hazel-rah nodded and replied.

"Only the basic, she didn't have enough time to learn the hrair of the dialect."

The day passed by with the other Watership rabbits gazing in wonder at the giant Vilthuril, and being introduced to the des humans. Then came sunset and the entire warren, with the des humans, watched Vilthuril shrink back to her normal size as the anti-cancer drug wore off. It was steady and long, but by fu-inlé she was the old Vilthuril; shorter than Hyzenthlay but taller than Fiver, with a mouth that the end of a carrot could fit in rather than an entire hrududu's worth and with a paw she could pat Pipkin with without squashing him like an ant.

The next morning Elaine & the other two were ready to return to Basingstoke, they had enough money for bus-fare. Before they left Elaine made their goodbyes; she said 'Frithaes!' to all the Watership rabbits, with royal respect for Hazel-rah & Hyzenthlay-rah. When she came to Vilthuril, whom she could only just remember the original size of, she asked her a question.

"Mul i tring mon na - koi mi lay nos-nyt-nyt-nyt - naylte sisi?" Vilthuril looked into Elaine's light brown eyes and replied.

"Nahl, bleth a lay yen lay bleth a drao lay. An me laynt vao blair me laynt kimthile." Elaine patted Vilthuril's back thinking 'This is the same rabbit back I rode on for a few days?' and so she finally said.

"Frithaes, Vilthuril! A laynt dray a laynt - naylte, zoth a veth lay - asith mi. An, a lay bral - on layth sai sisi." Vilthuril lifted her forepaw and placed it on Elaine's chest and replied.

"Elén, on layth nahl-nyt koi dayn ol eth aisi eth. A layth lay thrang hli!" They then hugged each-other and Elaine went with the others to catch the bus, the Watership rabbits observed their way of getting down the hill, but some watched them leave with a more emotional reason for doing so.

Not one of them, not even Elaine looked back; but Elaine couldn't help but shed a few tears.

During the afternoon Vilthuril went up to Fiver who was at silflay, she was wide-eyed & staring (what I call 'Fiverish') and she asked him.

"Do you think such an event will happen again?" Fiver looked up at her with a more determined version of her expression and replied.

"Who knows, reality has variables for some are of probability and others are true when in another they are untrue tales. We might have lives that are governed by the untrue tales of another reality." Vilthuril could not comprehend this, she just sighed and thought to her self.

'Everything is back to normal.' She went off to silflay by herself, Watership Down was at it was.

THE END


End file.
